Everything You Wanted to Know about a Knife Sharpener

wow, this is a really poor review of knife sharpening. And I wouldn’t need to comment, except that your video popped up when I was googling for related information, so I’m afraid that others will run into this as well and be mis-informed.

first, “specialty” stores aren’t the only places that sharpen knives. most hardware stores still are able to send knives out to have them sharpened and reshaped. AND this runs right into the second point.

There is a huge difference between honing, sharpening and reshaping. HUGE. And these seem to be ignored or unknown by your staff.

The key to knife sharpening is:
1) don’t wait till you have to sharpen. Hone your knife

2) don’t sharpen your knife when you should have it reshaped.

3) Check your blade EVERY time you use it. Have a routine, either before you cut or after. I prefer after, so I always have a sharp knife coming out of the block.

Continuing: you show a stone, but don’t show a diamond-embedded “stone” which is far superior and longer-lasting. Then you state that “this is rather bulky and many people find it awkward to use without expert instruction”. So you dismiss the method that pretty much is the standard. FYI: it takes about 2 minutes to learn how to use a stone or a “stone” and as you already instructed people to “read your owner’s manual”, those 2 minutes are already completed.

I won’t talk about the “file”, but come on!

then, and this is what made me reply, you equated a sharpening steel to a stone or electric sharpener. This misinformation is why people don’t use sharp knives and, by falling for the same fallacy, you showed that you really don’t know how to sharpen a knife. It seems like you are just pushing for people to use electric sharpeners, which are often worse than stones until you pay more than $50 and still not great unless you pay about $100. And talk about “bulky and awkward to use”. These mini grinders will decrease the life of your $160 10″ chef’s knife by years.

Here are my reliable method for sharpening a knife.

1) get a good, diamond-embedded sharpening steel, often called honing steel because you are honing the blade. Many knife sets come with a diamond steel. Take 2 minutes to learn how to use it.

2) Hone your knife EVERY time you use it. Again have a routine. I wash, dry, hone, wipe and replace my knife after each use. It takes 30 seconds.

3a) Either get one of those fancy $100 electric sharpeners, or a good diamond steel and learn how to use it. About once a YEAR (maybe more depending on your use) use the steel or sharpener to bring your blade back to true.

3b) Call your local hardware or kitchen supply shop. Any good kitchen store will either have sharpening services or will know where you should take your knives. It costs about $6 to have a knife sharpened usually. You should only have to do this every couple years if you consistently hone your knives and keep them where the blades are not getting damaged.